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Roxas was not a baby. He could go to the playroom all by himself. He didn't need a babysitter!
"Too bad," Vanitas moved through the forest like he was floating, "You earned a babysitter when you brought that gross frog home."
"It wasn't gross!" Roxas stomped. "Master Aqua used the goop to make hair stuff!"
Vanitas rolled his eyes.
"And anyway I won't bring anything else home, so you can leave!"
"Aqua told me to look after you."
Roxas stopped. This was so annoying. He looked at Vanitas.
Vanitas trailed behind him, looking around them. "She thinks something big moved into the forest. She's worried it isn't friendly."
So she sent him to check it out? Must not be that bad.
"No one needs to look after me," Roxas growled. "I can take care of myself."
Vanitas wasn't even looking at him. "Is that why you keep going everywhere by yourself? You used to be with the other brats all the time."
"Mind your business!"
"You are my business," Vanitas looked at him, "I have to make sure you get back safely."
"Nothing in this forest can hurt me. I'm the most dangerous thing here!"
"Is that right?" Vanitas leaned on a tree. There was a challenge in his eyes.
"That's right! I'm stronger than anything here, including you!"
"Fine." Vanitas didn't move. "Go."
Roxas eyed him. He was up to something. Roxas took a step away. Vanitas didn't move. He took another step. Still nothing. Roxas darted off. He looked behind him. It didn't seem like he was being followed. He slowed down.
The first thing he wanted to do was visit the pond. His frog lived there. The pond was covered in a thick layer of slime. The Goop Frogs settled on the surface or dived into the pond. They were always active. Roxas's frog was on a big rock by the edge. It was always there. He could tell it was the same frog because it still smelt like Aqua and the tower.
Roxas sat by it. He listed names for it, but it didn't seem to like any of them. He stood up and promised to name it soon. He headed back into the woods. He looked around. Still no Vanitas. Good. He didn't need a babysitter. And it wasn't like Vanitas really cared about him. He just did what Aqua told him to do.
The forest was Roxas's favorite playroom area. Sora, Xion, and Namine liked the beach. Roxas did too. It was fun, but it wasn't mysterious like the forest.
The forest had tall trees that touched the sky. It had cool animals. It had so many plants. Roxas found something new every time he came. They couldn't go deep enough into the ocean to find really cool stuff, but everything was on the surface in the forest.
There was a pretty white flower by a tree. Its stem was kinda clear and looked like a tube. Roxas had never seen it before. He tried to pluck it, but it's stem just stretched with his pulls. As he pulled, he noticed another one further down and another and another. He followed the trail into a field of white flowers.
He'd been here before, but the flowers were new. The flowers sat around the strangest tree Roxas had ever seen. Its trunk was clear like the stems and inside of it were billions of the stems. Higher up Roxas saw a huge white flower. It was the prettiest of all of them. Roxas walked forward to get a better look.
"Hello, young one," the big flowers stretched downward and took on a shape resembling a pretty human. "What brings you to my den?"
"The pretty flowers."
"How cute," It brushed his face with a tubey vine. "You're a fan of my flowers?"
"Yea, they're cool."
"Oooh," It smiled, "would you like to help them grow then?"
"Sure!"
"Lovely!" It picked Roxas up in Its vines. "Such a cute meal." It started wrapping Roxas up.
"Hey!" Roxas kicked. "I'm not food."
"Oooh, so much power! We shall eat well."
"Stop it!" Roxas squirmed. He summoned his claws and tail, but didn't have room to move.
"Oooh!" It kept touching his face. "What are you?"
"Need some help, Roxas?" Vanitas was standing in the entry.
"No!" Roxas bit the vine. "I'm fine!"
"Okay then."
"Oooh! Another meal so soon!"
Roxas bit through the vine. It didn't even react. Roxas squirmed. He was almost completely cocooned. He looked at Vanitas. He looked so smug. Roxas didn't say anything. He wasn't going to lose. And what could Vanitas do anyway? He looked back at Vanitas. He was--- Gone? Where had ---
"That's my brat," Vanitas stood on top of the flower. He had his foot where the flower connected to the tree. "Put him down."
"Oooh, wha---" It made a choking sound.
"It would be such a shame," Vanitas ran a claw down the connecting tube, "If there was no one left to feed the flowers."
Roxas hit the ground.
"You're new here, right?"
"We are."
"Then I'll let you off with a warning. If any other brats come through here," Vanitas poked at the tube with his claws, "don't touch them. Understood?"
"Yes, we understand."
"Good," Vanitas landed next to Roxas. He grabbed Roxas by his collar and dragged him out of the den.
"I didn't need your help!" Roxas flailed, still being dragged by Vanitas. "I had a plan."
"To become plant food?"
"No!"
"It doesn't matter how strong you are, if you fall into traps."
"Let go!"
Vanitas let go. Roxas fell to the ground.
"You could have easily beaten that thing if you knew what you were doing."
"I could've?" Roxas stood up dusting himself off. "I mean of course I could've!" He crossed his arms. "... How?"
"If you would have drawn your claws as soon as it grabbed you, you could've sliced the vines. Then you could have run out. It wasn't very fast." Vanitas started forward. Roxas followed.
"Or if you wanted to do more damage you could have taken a few more swipes at it, but that wouldn't be very smart because we don't know all its capabilities. Of course, the easiest way to end it is to separate It from Its tree."
"How do you know all that?"
"I was trained to locate and exploit my target's weaknesses. And in the case of an unyielding target, to incapacitate."
"Huh?"
"I know where to hit to make it hurt."
"So you know how to fight?"
"I know how to hunt."
"Oh. What about me?"
"You?"
"How would you hunt me?"
Vanitas looked at Roxas, he was quiet for a moment. "You're physically very strong, but you're small and inexperienced. I could probably trick you and put you in a trap. If we had to fight, I couldn't hit you hard enough to do damage without exerting myself and you'd be a real pain to fight up close, so I'd keep a distance and tire you out with ranged attacks."
"Whoa! What about Ven?"
"I don't know."
"How come? You've known him forever."
"Ventus isn't a target." He crossed his arms, "I only did you because you asked."
"So you probably never hurt him on accident, huh?"
Vanitas frowned. "I did."
"You did?"
"I freaked out. I wasn't…" He closed his eyes, leaning against a tree. "...in control."
"I hurt Xion."
Vanitas opened his eyes and looked at him.
"It was before you two got here. We were playing tag on the stairs and I was just trying to tag her, but I… I don't know what happened! I cracked her arm and she fell and I could have…
"DiZ always said I was dangerous," Roxas's vision blurred with tears, "but I didn't know I could hurt people on accident."
"It's not fair," Roxas felt his throat burning. "I want to play with my friends! I don't want to hurt them."
Roxas wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. Why was he crying in front of Vanitas? It was so embarrassing!
Vanitas put a hand on Roxas's head. "It must be hard."
Roxas nodded.
"I want to help you."
"You do?"
Vanitas nodded. "Let's head back. I need to tell Aqua about that flower and then we'll talk to Ventus."
"Okay."
Vanitas started forward. Roxas followed closely behind Vanitas. He thought about Sora and how he was always grabbing Ven's hand. Sora didn't have to worry about hurting Ven or breaking anything, he never had. Roxas took a breath and grabbed on the edge of Vanitas's shirt. That would have to do for now.
+++
It'd been a while since Vanitas had seen Ventus like this. There were several big books open on the table and Ventus was jumping from one to another. He had a notepad in one hand and a pen in the other. He was scribbling fast and muttering to himself.
Vanitas, Sora, and Roxas were standing to the side, watching him.
When they'd gotten back from the "playroom", Vanitas had told Aqua about the new being in the forest. Then he'd asked Ventus if he could figure out why Roxas couldn't control his strength. Ventus went straight to work.
"Alright." Ventus nodded. "It's obvious in hindsight."
"So?" Vanitas crossed his arms.
"Manticore are the perfect predators. In the wild, they live lives of solitude only coming in contact with prey, so their instincts are to hunt anything that gets their adrenaline rushing. It doesn't know how to differentiate from the adrenaline of the hunt and general excitement."
"What?" Roxas tilted his head.
"Whenever you get excited, your brain thinks you're hunting your friends."
"What!?"
"Your brain thinks your friends are food because they make you happy."
"I don't want to eat my friends!"
"I mean technically---"
Vanitas shot him a look, "He got it, Ventus! How do we fix it?"
"Well, I suppose you'll have to teach your brain the difference."
"I can do that?"
"I don't see why not. People train wild animals all the time and you're much smarter than that." Ventus thought for a moment. "It can't be much different than when our master trained Vanitas."
"How'd he do that?"
Ventus looked at Vanitas, "I don't know. Vanitas?"
Vanitas looked away. There was no way he could do any of that stuff to Roxas. He was trying to help him not hurt him. Though, maybe if he just switched out the bad parts with good things, it could work...
Roxas looked at Vanitas, "So you'll show me how?"
"If I must."
Roxas smiled. He looked like he wasn't carrying so much anymore. That was good he was carrying way too much for such a young kid. Maybe bit by bit, Vanitas could take some of it off of him.